Prescote
| Prescote | |
 Prescote
Prescote shown within Oxfordshire |
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| Population | 16 (2001 census)[1] |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SP4746 |
| Civil parish | Prescote |
| District | Cherwell |
| Shire county | Oxfordshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Banbury |
| Postcode district | OX17 |
| Dialling code | 01295 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Banbury |
|
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Prescote is a hamlet and civil parish about 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Banbury in Oxfordshire Its boundaries are the River Cherwell in the southeast, a tributary of the Cherwell called Highfurlong Brook in the west, and Oxfordshire's boundary with Northamptonshire in the northeast.
History
Prescote's toponym probably means "priest's cottage", referring to a cottage either owned by a priest or more likely inhabited by one.[2] Legend associates Prescote with Saint Fremund, a Mercian prince held to have been martyred in the 9th century AD.[2]
The Domesday Book of 1086 does not mention Prescote. The manor did exist by 1208-09, when the Bishop of Lincoln was the feudal overlord.[2] Prescote comprised two manors that were held separately until 1417-1419, when John Danvers of Calthorpe acquired both of them.[2] In 1796 Sir John Danvers, Baronet, died without a male heir and left Prescote to his son-in-law Augustus Richard Butler.[2] In 1798 Butler sold the estate to the Pares family, who in 1867 sold it to Samuel Jones-Loyd, 1st Baron Overstone.[2] In 1883 Baron Overstone died without a male heir and left his estates to his daughter, Harriet, Lady Wantage.[2] On her death in 1920 Prescote was sold to A.P. McDougall,[2] whose Midland Marts company opened a cattle stockyard in 1921 beside Banbury Merton Street railway station. By 1964 Prescote belonged to Anne Crossman, the wife of Richard Crossman M.P. Crossman was a descendant of the Danvers family.[2]
Prescote manor house has traces of a mediaeval moat, but a date-stone over the door of the present house indicates that it was built for Sir John Danvers in 1691.[3] The house was extended early in the 19th century.[2] The house at Prescote Manor Farm, about 0.5 miles (800 m) northeast of the Manor House, is dated 1693.[3]
Prescote had a mill on the River Cherwell, called Boltysmylle in 1482 and Boltes Mill in 1613.[2] By 1654 there was a "Prescote Mill", which may be the same as the earlier Boltes Mill.[2] By 1703 the mill was in disrepair but its remains were still recorded as extant in 1797-98 and 1823.[2] Today only its mill stream survives.[2] The mill's decline may be linked with the manor's transition from arable to sheep farming. In 1547 a Danvers leased land at Prescote to a shepherd, and in 1797 it was reported that most of the 385 acres (156 ha) of the farm attached to Prescote Manor was "old inclosed" pasture.[2]
References
Sources and further reading
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